Hope and Social Support in Elderly Patients with Cancer and Their Partners: An Actor–Partner Interdependence Model

ABSTRACTS

Aim: Assess relationships between oldest-old (minimum 86 years) patients’ perceived social support to their own and their spousal caregivers’ hope through application of the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM). Patients & methods: 58 dyads of patients and their spousal caregivers completed standardized self-report measures of depression, distress, hope and social support. Results: Patients presented high distress levels. Among patients and spouses, perceived social support was positively correlated to their own level of hope (β = 0.44, p < 0.0001; β = 0.56, p < 0.0001, respectively) and negatively correlated to the other’s level of hope (β = -0.25, p < 0.024; β = -0.44, p < 0.0001, respectively). Conclusion: The actor–partner interdependence model was found to be adequate for describing relationships between social support and hope among dyads of oldest-old patients and their spousal caregivers. Patients and caregiver seem to utilize social support to enhance hope.

KEYWORDS:

• distress
• hope
• oldest-old

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This research was partially supported by a grant from the Organization for People Suffering from Cancer (‘Verein für Krebskranke’), The Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria and partially supported by a grant from Harold Michaels in memory of: ‘Henriette Michaels, beloved wife and sister’. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.